Kinahan murder machine ignored as Government claimed "sinister fringe" water protesters main threat to State

By:

Pat Flanagan - Irish Mirror

Labour ministers claimed THEY were under threat from water protesters a Fine Gael TD compared to Isis as sinister Kinahan cartel flooded the country with guns and drugs

If Enda Kenny considered calling out the Army to defend the ATMs and the banks why has he not ordered boots on the ground to protect the citizens of Dublin’s inner city?

There’s a very simple answer and it lies in the fact that a gang feud which has cost seven lives has little or no consequences for those who run the country.

Is it just me or has anyone noticed it is only when there’s a threat to the vested interests does the State reach for extraordinary or emergency measures to deal with a situation?

Think of the danger posed by water protesters that bus-loads of gardai were drafted in to housing estates to ensure that this vital piece of national infrastructure was installed.

It was so vital that it will never be used but then again it’s not a total waste, didn’t the companies installing them pocket €500million of our money for doing the unnecessary work.

Water protesters and not the Kinahan cartel were considered the main threat to the State

And who could forget the policing arrangements at Shell’s Corrib pipeline in Mayo where gardai often outnumbered protesters in operations costing in excess of €16million – not including the cost of basic salaries of officers deployed to the area.

Get the picture. Coppers from all over the country were drafted in to make sure important infrastructure was installed without hindrance while at the same time Dublin’s north inner city lost 140 gardai.

Still, after seven murders in a vicious feud the authorities are finally taking the situation seriously as it now poses a distinct threat... to themselves.

Such is the public outrage that the Kinahan gang is able to murder at will just a few hundred metres from O’Connell Street the Government has to be seen to be doing something.

It hasn’t been a good week for the Garda, the Government or the country as a whole as it appears the State is unable (or unwilling) to stand up to one of Europe’s most powerful drug cartels.

When confronted in the Dail about Gareth Hutch’s brutal murder the Taoiseach incredibly claimed he “can’t stop” this “vicious and murderous dispute”.

Mr Kenny also said it has a European element, a reference to Spain-based Kinahan gang, which was rich as this is a guy who told an audience in Madrid he considered putting the Army around banks and ATMs to protect them from the public trying to get at their money.

If that was the case then why did he not draft the units of the Army to assist gardai in Dublin’s north inner city – a point which was even suggested an in editorial in yesterday’s Irish Times.

To understand how it has come to such a state of lawless- ness it’s necessary to look back at the record of the last Government and its priorities because fighting organised crime was not one of them.

There is nothing in the Dail records to show the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition ever mentioned the threat posed by the Kinahan cartel during their five years in office despite them flooding the country with cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

Alan Kelly claimed his office was under threat

The same politicians who are now declaring war on crime saw nothing sinister in an Irishman being the murderous godfather of a drugs cartel, on a par with those based in Mexico and Colombia, yet set up a special Garda unit to keep tabs on water protesters.

On the other hand there is plenty on the Dail record of what the Coalition deemed to be the real threat, what the then Health Minister Leo Varadkar referred to as the “sinister fringe” – water protesters.

Minister for water meters Alan Kelly wasn’t afraid of the “Dapper Don” Christy Kinahan, he was panicking about threats on his office which turned out to have been made by a woman with psychiatric problems.

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Blast from the Past

Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe’s first contact with a TD came about because he saw Clare Daly TD on ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’ talking about policing of Corrib Gas protests, writes William Hederman

The repercussions for Garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson will be familiar to others who have publicly embarrassed An Garda Síochána. They were clearly acting in the public interest, but their revelations brought the force into disrepute, and the two men suffered as a result. Revenge was exacted – not only by colleagues, but also by way of public denunciation by the Garda Commissioner (“disgusting”), the Minister for Justice (“not co-operating”) and by various other parties loyal to the force.

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